Mexican Soccer Player Uses Swine Flu to Taunt Foes

By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff
Posted May 1, 2009 4:56 PM CDT

A Mexican soccer player apologized today for swine-flu-themed antics intended to put an opposing player off his game, the AP reports. Hector Reynoso, of Guadalajara club Chivas, coughed and spat at a member of a Chilean team during a high-profile Latin American tournament game. “I’ve cooled off now, but at the time I reacted and, perhaps, it wasn't an appropriate thing that I was doing,” he said.

Chilean media immediately seized on the incident in its focus on the flu outbreak, Catesby Holmes notes in the Huffington Post, with one headlining its story “Mexican spat at Everton player in midst of swine flu panic.” Two Mexican clubs are in the tournament’s final 16, but officials are reviewing their continued participation.
(More swine flu stories.)

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